Poor Police Service

November 9, 1986

MY FATHER, a senior citizen with a serious heart ailment, has to take a long walk down his driveway to pick up the ''free newspapers'' thrown in his front yard, simply to carry them all the way back to the house to throw them in the garbage. He has called these ''free newspaper'' distributors and asked them not to throw these papers in his yard because he does not read them. Needless to say, the yard is still being littered.

To make matters worse, my father, a retired artist, decided to put a sign in his front yard stating he no longer wanted his front yard littered. Of course, someone from the city of Kissimmee contacted him. He was told nothing could be done about papers thrown in his yard, and the sign would have to come down because of zoning regulations. Of course, my stubborn father refused.

When it came right down to the draw, a Kissimmee city official and a police officer with a billy club arrived at my father's front yard and promptly removed the sign.

Our home was burglarized July 22. More than $1,200 worth of cash and merchandise was taken. The police department of our community said they would send an investigator to our home within a short time. We heard nothing for six weeks so I called the police station. A detective told me she would make sure someone would contact us within the next week. It has now been 14 weeks since my home was broken into, and still we have not heard from an investigator.

It is pretty sad when the police department has to send an officer with a billy club to remove a harmless sign from a harmless old man's front yard, yet it has been more than three months since my house was burglarized and the police department couldn't send someone to my house to investigate. What am I paying taxes for, anyway?